Effect of acute exercise of differing intensities on simple and choice reaction and movement times

ObjectiveThe purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of acute, short-duration exercise on the performance of simple and choice visual reaction and movement times.MethodFollowing an incremental test to exhaustion to determine exercise intensities, 12 male participants completed simple and choice reaction tests on a cycle ergometer where both reaction time and movement time were measured, with each test being performed on a separate day. Tests were performed at rest, moderate, heavy and severe intensities.ResultFor reaction time, a 2-way (reaction time complexity × exercise intensity) repeated measures Analysis of Variance demonstrated a significant interaction effect (p = 0.02) and polynomial contrasts demonstrated a linear effect for choice reaction time (p < 0.05) (where choice reaction time decreased with increasing exercise intensity), but no significant effect for simple reaction time. For movement time, polynomial contrasts for exercise intensity showed a significant quadratic effect (p = 0.01) (with movement time fastest in the moderate to heavy domains). There was a significant main effect for complexity in both reaction (p < 0.001) and movement (p = 0.002) time.ConclusionThe results of this study showed that simple and choice reaction times were affected differently by acute, short-duration exercise of differing intensities. The movement time data differ from previous research and show a quadratic effect rather than a linear one.